"A sweaty, funny examination into suburban marriage, motherhood, social status and all the other reasons I left New Jersey." Joel Stein, columnist for Entertainment Weekly and the Los Angeles Times The last person Liz Alterman expects to hear from during her Thanksgiving prep is her husband, Rich. He never calls from his job at a busy Manhattan newsroom. And he never will again, because he's just been laid off. Two months later, Liz is downsized, too. At first, Rich is enchanted with his new leisurely lifestyle. But when he's still unemployed six months later, his euphoric mood devolves into depression and despair. It falls to Liz to figure out how to support their family of five and keep up appearances in their well-to-do suburb, where even nannies drive the latest model Lexus. Sad Sacked blends the wit of Nora Ephron's Heartburn with the madcap hilarity of Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette to expose the pressure on women to put on a happy face even as their world falls apart. In Liz Alterman's gifted hands, we laugh until we cry about what happens when the bottom drops out.

Liz Alterman is the author of a domestic suspense novel, The Perfect Neighborhood, a young adult thriller, He'll Be Waiting, and a memoir, Sad Sacked. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney's, and other outlets. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, three sons, and two cats, and spends most days microwaving the same cup of coffee and looking up synonyms. When she isn't writing, she's reading. Visit her at lizalterman.com.